Ultimate X-Men
Ultimate X-Men was the second series released under the Ultimate Comics imprint, and ran for a little over eight years, ending on issue number 100. It followed the adventures of the X-Men. Summary The Tomorrow People Sentinels begin killing Mutants hiding in America, leading Charles Xavier to form the X-Men. Jean Gray finds and recruits Henry McCoy, Ororo Munroe, and Piotr Rasputin. Their first mission is to find Bobby Drake and recruit him to the X-Men, and they do, despite getting attacked by Sentinels. Their enemies the Brotherhood of Mutants led by Erik Lensherr sends James Howlett to infiltrate the X-Men and kill Xavier. Weapon X captures Howlett, but the X-Men save him and recruit him. The X-Men then are sent to Croatia to save George Bush's daughter who was taken hostage by the Brotherhood, succeeding at the price of McCoy being severely injured. After Gray and Xavier preform surgery on McCoy, the X-Men go to meet Bush in Washington D.C. while Scott Summers defects to the Brotherhood. Summers is in the Brotherhood when the Sentinels sent by Bush arrive and attack, but Lensherr reprograms them to kill humans and flies them back to destroy America. The X-Men fight the Sentinels, and Howlett's timely intervention and Pietro Lensherr's help leads Lensherr to be defeated by Xavier. His body his converted into an electro magnetic bomb that explodes above the city. Return to Weapon X After having to recapture Kurt Wagner, John Wraith at Weapon X begins thinking about capturing the X-Men. Howlett is looking at abandoned Weapon X bases in Arizona, while Summers, Munroe, and McCoy give a pro-Mutant interview in Japan. Before Howlett leaves to look at more Weapon X bases, he and Summers deal with mafia still threatening Rasputin's family in Russia. As the X-Men return to the school Weapon X cuts the power and easily captures all the X-Men in a surprise attack. Nick Fury goes on a scouting operation to take down a genetics lab for S.H.I.E.L.D. in India, and finds something horrifying, but is knocked out. Meeting with Thaddeus Ross, Wraith suggests using the X-Men to save Fury and complete his original mission, something Ross reluctantly agrees with. McCoy undergoes surgery turning him fully blue and more feral in appearance, and the X-Men have neural implants placed within them controlled by Wraith. As Rasputin, Drake, and McCoy rescued Fury, Summers, Gray, Munroe, and Wagner went to complete his mission. They did so, and Wraith forced Gray to execute the lead scientist Atul Pandya. Hearing Ross was canceling Weapon X, Wraith used Xavier (comatose and under his power) to detonate a bomb in Ross' office The X-Men were returned to imprisonment, when Howlett was finally captured. He was taken into the forest by Victor Creed, who burned the only file of Howlett's past. However, Howlett had placed a tracking device in himself, and the Brotherhood rescued the Mutants captured. Gray convinced them to spare the soldiers' lives, and Fury killed Wraith. The X-Men went home and Xavier revealed Lensherr was alive. You Never Forget Your First Love A little girl sees her parents get murdered by Hammerhead in New York. She runs away and sees Remy LeBeau using his Mutant powers as a street magician, and asks LeBeau to help resurrect her parents. LeBeau is shocked, but promises to protect the girl. As they sleep, she is stolen with a note left behind. LeBeau tears up the New York city crime circuit to find details on the Hammerhead. Even rejecting a chance to join the X-Men, LeBeau finds Hammerhead and seemingly kills him. He rescues the little girl and leaves her in a family. World Tour Xavier writes a letter to Timesweek about that Mutants are not all bad people, outlining the recent exploits of the X-Men. Not included in the letter is Xavier showing Rasputin that Lensherr is alive with mentally blocks surrounding his memory in New York. The letter is rejected because it was too pro-Mutant, but it does not affect the X-Men embarking upon a book tour with Xavier. In London, the X-Men have a competition to do a good dead and look for its response in the papers, and McCoy and Summers win for not using violence. Moira MacTaggert calls her ex-husband Xavier to Muir Island as their son David Xavier has escaped and gone on a killing spree. David is tracked to Aberdeen in Scotland inhabiting s sailor's body, and he jumps inside Howlett and briefly possess him before escaping and having Howlett get run over by a semi truck. Gray and Summers had gone to Russia to track the missing Rasputin, and when they find him, he announces that he has left the team and deemed Xavier a lunatic. The two try and convince him to help a sunken Russian submarine, but he leaves it to the Ultimates. When the Ultimates cannot make it, Rasputin saves the ship, and the positive publicity has him join the X-Men again. In Berlin, the search for David ends when Xavier realizes that he is possessing Betsy Braddock, a S.T.R.I.K.E. agent. David begins to fight the X-Men, and even brings Gray, Summers, and Rasputin into the conflict. Taking his father on the rest of the book tour, David kills thousands of civilians with his reality warping powers within minutes. He prepares to kill Xavier, but Braddock wrests some control over her body back. Rasputin kills Braddock/David at Braddock's urging, but Drake is seriously injured. At Braddock's funeral, Xavier announces that the X-Men will be shut down and that Drake's parents are suing him. As the X-Men fight the Acolytes in New Zealand, Xavier is back in New York, and writes a resignation letter, and prepares to remove Lensherr's mental blocks. Lensherr talks to him about the X-Men, and reveals he bought tickets to Xavier's lecture, shocking Xavier and renewing his faith in nonviolent methods. He telepathically tells the X-Men that class will resume. Hellfire and Brimstone Kitty Pryde has another phasing incident at her home where her body turns intangible and she phases through floors and the wall. Her mother Theresa Pryde arranges for her to join Xavier's school, and Grey picks them both up. Pryde and Xavier talk, and Xavier has to respect Pryde's wishes to not allow her to go any missions. Grey suddenly breaks down and has another vision of the Phoenix Force. In Pakistan, the Brotherhood uses new Animal Evolutionaries to disarm the country of its nuclear weapons, but Prosimian is unhappy with the Lensherr twins' leadership. McCoy, now single, only chats with 'Naomi' online and watches news of Drake's parent's plans to sue the X-Men, and Summers, now Gray's boyfriend fights Howlett over her, and Xavier has to break up the argument. Xavier sends Summers and Howlett to to sort their differences in a flight to the Savage Land, and Gray in Summers telepathically communicate about the Phoenix Force. Drake is unhappy about his parents suing, but they assure him he needs the money. McCoy tells 'Naomi' that Lensherr did not die in Washington and his memories are simply covered, shocking Dukes, who he is really talking to. In the Savage Land, Kitty reveals that she stowed away, and is sent to the Blackbird while Prosimian arranges for the Brotherhood to meet McCoy. Kitty calls Xavier to apologize, but Xavier expels her while Drake refuses to sue the X-Men. Deep beneath the Savage Land, Summers and Howlett find what has been taking missing soldiers: a supercomputer creating a new race. Kitty accidentally destroys it, while the Hellfire Club led by Sebastian Shaw (the X-Men's benefactors) decide to have Xavier meet them. At the gala the Hellfire Club holds, Shaw reveals that it was a ruse to capture Gray, and neutralizes the other Mutants with her: Xavier, Munroe, and Rasputin. Shaw calls the Phoenix Force God into Gray, and she becomes possessed, and kills the Hellfire Club. The Phoenix Force begins healing people, but Xavier stops it short of a resurrection and forces it out of Gray. Munroe then gets a call from McCoy that he has been played by the Brotherhood and that they have released Lensherr's memories of being Magneto. Lensherr thanks Charles with metal letters in the sky, kills Prosimian for being a threat, and orders the Brotherhood to be reformed. Characters *Erik Lensherr *Bolivar Trask *Henry McCoy *Jean Gray *Ororo Munroe *Piotr Rasputin *Scott Summers *Charles Xavier *Bobby Drake *Mortimer Toynbee *Pietro Lensherr *Wanda Lensherr *James Howlett *John Wraith *Liebowitz *Franklin Dukes *Jason Wyngarde *George Bush *Kurt Wagner *Abraham Cornelius *Marian Carlyle *Cain Marko *Victor Creed *Nick Fury *Atul Pandya *Hammerhead *Remy LeBeau *David Xavier *Moira MacTaggert *Dai Thomas *Betsy Braddock *Brian Braddock *James Braddock *Kitty Pryde *Theresa Pryde *Andrew Turk *Phoenix Force *Prosimian *Sebastian Shaw